Since we were 18. Or 16. Or whatever.

Charles cursed the person responsible for this. He didn't know for sure, but he was 99.98 % sure that person was Lando. It was between the Brit and Carlos. And Charles was pretty sure that Carlos wouldn't have come up with the idea of a couple's vacation in Germany. It had to have been Lando's idea.

He had been confused at first, when Carlos had come up to him and asked him if he would like to join him, Lando, Oscar and Logan for a couples' trip to some small town in Germany. Apparently Lando had discovered that his teammate was in a relationship with Logan and had made a whole plan for a vacation among couples, which, strangely, included Charles. Strange, because Charles was single. He had been, ever since him and Charlotte had broken up just about a year ago.

Obviously, he had tried telling Carlos that, because he wasn't really fond of being the third wheel to not one but two couples. But the Spaniard hadn't wanted to hear any of it. He had just shot him a knowing look and said: "You don't have to hide it, you know? Anyways, just let me know if you and Max are joining us by the end of the week. We have to book the vacation home until then." And with that he had left Charles standing there, as confused as he had never been before.

Max? Why would Carlos think that he and Max where like...a couple? Desperately needing an answer, he had gone to Pierre. But contrary to his hopes, his best friend had just stared at him for a few seconds before erupting in laughter. "Charles." He had said after calming down again. "Why would anyone not think that you and Max are dating? Have you ever been on the internet?" Charles had snorted at that comment. Of course he had been on the internet before, he just never paid any attention to what people where saying about him on there.

"Lestappen." Pierre had continued suddenly. "What?" Charles's confusion had just been growing from minute to minute. "That's what they call you and Max. Lestappen. You know, from LEclerc and VerSTAPPEN?" "Lestappen?" Charles had repeated. "That sounds stupid." "It's not more stupid than you and Max. Seriously, how are you guys not fucking yet? You're literally the definition of enemies to lovers." "Pierre!" "Sorry, but it's true. And you can't tell me you've never thought of it." Pierre had laughed, whilst Charles's face turned the colour of a tomato. Because he had. That had just made Pierre giggle more. The Monegasque had fled the Alpine garage after that so he didn't have to think about Max anymore.

That worked for about one minute until he literally ran into – you guessed it – Max on his way back to Ferrari. "Woah", the Dutch had grunted, "Careful!" Charles had wished the ground would open up beneath him and swallow him in one. "Sorry!" He stuttered. "I...I need to go." He had kept his eyeline straight to the floor and moved past Max. But suddenly he had felt a hand grip his biceps. "Charles, wait." Charles had frozen in his steps.

"Did Lando also tell you about that vacation thing?" Charles had felt like he would die here and now. He replied anyway. "Carlos did." "So, what do you think?" And there it had been again, the confusion. "I'm going to cancel, obviously. It's a couple's vacation, I'm single." "Not to Lando and Carlos. Especially Lando." Max had argued. "I think he would be devastated, if he found out that were not actually dating." Charles had grunted. "Then he shouldn't ever have believed it in the first place." The Dutchman had nodded in consideration. "But think about all the fun we could have on that trip!" Charles had frowned. "Wait, so what do you suggest we do?" "We agree to go and pretend to be a couple for the week."

Charles had known that it was a shit idea back then, but still, here he was. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Germany. It was a beautiful landscape, to be fair. And the vacation home was marvellous. Apparently, Nico had recommended it.

"Well, hi there, schatje!" Charles flinched, when two arms wrapped around him from behind him, where he was standing on the balcony of their room. "Oh, damn it, Max! Don't scare me like that! Also, you don't have to call me that, there's no one else here!" The Monegasque complained but Max just chuckled and pressed a quick kiss on his jaw. "But I want to call you schatje. It suits you so well. And we have to keep the façade up." Charles couldn't see the Dutchman's face but he knew exactly he was smirking. He rolled his eyes and sighed before he gave in and leaned against Max's warm chest. It wasn't that cold this time of year but being this close to Max still felt good. Charles closed his eyes and breathed in Max's familiar scent. It smelled like home, safe. The butterflies in his stomach made him smile.

Wait, what? Shit. The Monegasque freed himself from Max's hug and fled inside the house. Butterflies, seriously? What was he? A school girl in love? No, he was neither a school girl nor in love. Especially not in love with Max Verstappen. They had been rivals since forever, good friends only for a few years. He didn't love Max. Did he?

<p>"Charles?" Max. He had followed him inside from the balcony and was now looking at him with concerned eyes. "Are you okay?" Charles needed a few seconds before he replied. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just need to make a call.", he mumbled and vanished into the bathroom. After he had locked the door behind him he fumbled his phone out of his jeans and called Pierre. "Salut, Calamar! How's it going?" The Frenchman's voice greeted him after a few seconds.</p>

"I have a problem." Charles murmured, so Max wouldn't hear him if he was listening. "I felt butterflies when Max hugged me." Pierre chuckled on the other side of the line. "Yes, Charles. That happens, when you're in love." "I'm not in love with him!" Charles hissed. "Charlie." Pierre stated in a tone that conveyed are-you-serious. "I've been around you two for longer than I would wish anyone and I can tell you: You two have been pining for each other since you were eighteen. At least. More like sixteen. Or whatever."

Charles's jaw dropped in disbelief and he couldn't repress a laugh. "Did you seriously just make a reference to a One Direction song?" He could literally hear Pierre shrugging. "Maybe. But it's true. I'm kind of amazed by how oblivious you both are. How did even Carlos and Lando get together before you two?" Charles couldn't take anymore teasing from Pierres side, so he hung up on him and slid down the bathroom wall until he was sitting on the ground, his arms propped up on his knees. He thought about Pierre's words. Had he really been in love with Max for such a long time without noticing?

He thought back to his carting days, the joy he had felt every time he got to race Max. The Dutchman's piercing blue eyes, which had burned themselves into his mind the first time he had seen him. He thought about the famous inchident, how Max had been so pissed in front of the cameras but as soon as he had seen Charles after the race he had smiled and hugged him. And only now, that he thought about it, Charles remembered the tickle in his tummy when he had melted into Max's arms.

Fuck. Pierre was right. Charles was so in love with Max. Fuck. He needed to get some air and process all of that. So Charles left the bathroom, grabbed his jacket and headed for the front door. "I'm going for a walk." He told the others, when he had to cross the living room, where they were all were sitting on the couch and in the armchairs, to get to the door. He was almost sure that Max looked at him worriedly but he ignored all of them and just stepped outside.

The village they were staying in was petite, so he had been very confident he would not get lost, when he started his walk. Boy had he been wrong. Turns out, German villages are just big ass mazes. So now here he was, lost in Germany, thanks to Lando. And it did absolutely not help that he didn't know any German other than eins, zwei, drei, Kartoffel, Schmetterling. And somewhere deep down in his mind he remembered Seb teaching him about "mein rader blocken" but he doubted that would help him now.

It would of course have been helpful if he could just use google maps, but his phone had died about ten minutes ago. And it wouldn't have been a big help, since he didn't know the address of the house. Fuck, he was so stupid. The sun slowly began to set and Charles wasn't really fond of spending the night outside in a German village. Who knew if there where wolves here.
Charles felt a little spike of relief when he spotted an elderly man out in his front yard, cutting some bushes. "Hello, excuse me?" He called out. The man turned around, spotted him and smiled.

"Guten Abend! Kann ich Ihnen helfen?" [Good evening! Can I help you?] "Erm...I'm sorry, but do you speak English?" It didn't seem like he did but asking couldn't hurt. "Oh, ähm. Nein." The man shook his head. "Frances?" Charles prayed he would say yes. But another headshake. "Je ne parle pa' Frances." He replied with a heavy accent. Charles sighed. So sign language it was. "Do you have a telephone?" He asked very slowly and clearly while pretending to pick up a receiver. "Ah, müssen Sie telefonieren?" The man asked.

Charles didn't understand but the last word sounded similar enough, so he nodded. The man smiled and signalled to follow him. So Charles did. He knew it probably wasn't the smartest move to follow a stranger into his house but he was desperate and he wanted Max. Luckily, the old man didn't seem to have any plans to murder Charles in cold blood. Instead he led him into the kitchen and pointed to the land line telephone which was sitting on the window-sill. "Thank you!" Charles said and tried to remember what that meant in German. "Dankeschon!" He tried and it seemed to be close enough because the man smiled and nodded encouragingly to the phone.

When Charles reached the phone, he realized that he didn't have any phone numbers memorized. Except...Max's. Why he knew the Dutchman's number by heart was a mystery to him, but right now he didn't care. He was just glad. So, he dialled Max's number and held the receiver to his ear. Max picked up instantly. "Verstappen?" "Max." A giant weight fell off Charles's chest. Max's voice made him feel just as safe as his touch and his smell. "Charles?" Max sounded relieved. "Where are you, I was so worried! Are you okay?" Charles nodded. Then he realized Max couldn't see him. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just lost." "Oh, schatje. Can you tell me where you are? I'll come and get you." "Erm...well I'm using somebodies land line but I don't know the address. Maybe he can tell you. But he doesn't speak English or French."

Charles could hear Max laughing quietly. "Okay, give him to me baby. I promise, I'll pick you up." Goosebumps formed all over Charles's body when Max called him baby. He had never done that before but damn did Charles love it. "Okay.", he whispered. He turned around, to the kitchen door where the owner of the house was still standing. Charles waved at him to signal he should come closer. The man frowned but complied and when he was close enough Charles handed him the phone. The elderly took it with a confused look on his face.

"Hallo?" The Monegasque could hear Max talking indistinctively in German and the old man's expression became more and more understanding. He then spoke some gibberish into the phone, which Charles didn't understand one word of. Shortly after the man hung up the phone and smiled at Charles. "Du hast dir einen guten ausgesucht." [You chose a good one.] He then raised ten fingers into the air. "Zehn Minuten." He said. Charles could only guess, but that probably meant that Max would be there in about ten minutes.

"Dankeschon!" He repeated his phrase from before and smiled politely. Charles stood up and made his way back outside. He expected the man to stay inside and let him wait on his own but a minute after Charles had sat down on the front porch, the man sat next to him. They didn't talk. They just sat there and exchanged smiles. Seven minutes later Max appeared at the garden gate. "Charles!" Charles immediately got to his feet and ran into Max's arms. The Dutchman was happy to close him into his arms and pressed a kiss to his dark hair.

"Are you okay?" Charles nodded. "With you, always." Max snorted with a smile. Then his attention went to the old man who had now also gotten up from the front porch and was smiling at them from the distance. "Danke, dass Sie sich um ihn gekümmert haben!" [Thank you for taking care of him!] The man kept smiling. "Es war mir ein Vergnügen. Sie sind ein schönes Paar, Sie erinnern mich an meinen verstorbenen Mann und mich, als wir noch jung waren." [It was my pleasure. You're a beautiful couple, you remind me of my late husband and I when we were still young.]

Charles didn't know what they were saying, but Max's genuine smile that he gave the old man said more than a thousand words. "Schönen Abend noch." [Have a nice evening!] And with that Max took Charles's hand and led him away.

The whole way back to the vacation home Charles stayed close to Max. He held his hand and pressed into his side. When they where almost there Charles stopped. Max did too and turned around to the Monegasque in confusion. "Thank you." Charles broke the silence that had laid over them since they left the old man's front yard. "Don't.", Max answered, "I would do anything for you. This was nothing." After a few seconds of silence, he continued talking.

"But I would like to know why you went on that walk alone in the first place." Charles sighed. "I needed to think." "About what?" Max sounded genuinely curious. "Us." Silence. "Max, I'm in love with you." Charles suddenly blurted out. "Apparently, I have been since we were eighteen or sixteen or whatever, but I never realized until now. Pierre was making fun of me for that." He dared looking up at Max. The Dutchman was smirking widely and responded:

"I'm in love with you too, idiot. But did you really need to use that One Direction reference?" Charles rolled his eyes. "Shut up and finally kiss me." Max gladly complied. He wrapped his arms around the Monegasque and pulled him close. Then, finally, their lips were touching and an innocent kiss quickly turned into an aggressive make out session. And the others would probably know from their reddened lips what they had done. And Lando would probably tease them about it forever. But Max and Charles didn't care.

Because they both had been dreaming of this since they were eighteen. Or sixteen. Or whatever.

Hi! Long time no see!

I really hope you liked this one shot. It has already been posted on ao3, if you're interested in visiting my profile there, it's the same @ as here. I might write more now, to procrastinate the work I actually have to do for my Abitur xD

Thanks for reading!

MsReyland